


Don't Drink The Water

by occultclysms



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alien Culture, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Blood, Established Relationship, M/M, Multi, Neopronouns, Pre-Poly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28978548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occultclysms/pseuds/occultclysms
Summary: Ten is looking for Doyoung, his long lost love in Last Star, Kun's bar and he finds out more than he expects.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	Don't Drink The Water

**Author's Note:**

> note: kun uses both he/him and neopronouns but prefers vam/vamp

Ten stares at the blinking neon sign above the bar. Last Star is spelled out in pink and underlined in wonderblack. It’s not the colors Ten would have picked, but it’s not the worst combination he’s seen before. Shoving a four-fingered hand into the pocket of his low-wasted leather pants. There’s a few coin squares in there, hopefully enough to get him to his next stop. One of Ten’s tongues darts out to wet his lips and he sighs. Standing outside isn’t going to get him any closer to answers.

With four steps, Ten reaches the front of the navy-blue building. He sticks out his arm to push open the flap doors, but they move before he can touch them. Feeling a bit awkward, Ten pulls his hand back quickly and sticks it back into his pocket.

A quick glance around shows that the bar is pretty empty, but the few creatures that are here aren’t sitting together which feels a bit strange to Ten. The floorboards creak as Ten takes his first proper step into Last Star which feels intentional.

There’s a few eyes that immediately pull to Ten, but Ten doesn’t pay any attention to them. He knows what he looks like and doesn’t need to look down and remind himself. So he walks straight ahead and plops down on the glittered spinning stool, hands still as deep in his pockets as they can be.   
The bartender is talking to someone at the far end of the counter and is the only one with vamps galax-D on which makes sense. Ten keeps his off at all times for the sake of privacy. But Kun, the bartender, needs people to be able to get vamps attention.

Ten taps his fingers across the blue wood while he waits for Kun. His skin looks extra sickly in this weird lighting. Normally he looks quite green, but now he looks distilled. Ten doesn’t have a real reason for this, but he’s blaming at least some of it on the stress caused by his mission.

“Can I get you anything?” Ten looks up and sees Kun standing across from him. Even though Ten has met a few Crox before the wide cut mouth still is a lot to see up close. Black blood oozes from it at a constant rate, running down Kun’s cheeks and chin and following the line of vamps neck until it dips beneath vamps button down. Said button down has maybe one too many buttons popped, but Ten’s not really in the position to complain about what anyone else is wearing. His leather pants are paired with only a vest and his wings like to drop feathers on occasion.

“I’m wondering if a Doyoung Kim has been in here recently… or even at all. He’s about three star tall, a Quie, silver spark tattoos all up his arms.” Kun furrows his brows.

“That description sounds quite familiar, but I’d need to think about it for a minute. In the meantime, can I get you something to drink?” Kun asks. Ten doesn’t let any of his annoyance show, but if Kun needs him to buy a drink before giving him answers then so be it. Pausing his tapping on the bar, Ten pulls out a coin square at random. Sadly for him it’s his most valuable one and the neon blue mocks him as Ten sets it on the counter.

“Surprise me, I guess,” Ten mutters, pushing the coin square closer to Kun who has a playful look in vamps eyes. If vamp could smirk, Ten bets that vamp would. More blood drips from Kun’s mouth and vamp takes the coin square between two of his pale fingers. Dark veins stand out against vamps skin and Kun rotates the coin square before dropping it into something behind the counter.

“I’ll do my best.” Kun walks away from Ten and starts to scan across bottles and bottles of things. Ten doesn’t know what half of the things are on the shelf, but he doesn’t really care. As long as it tastes good.

Ten goes back to tapping on the counter and watching Kun, but that’s surprisingly boring, so he spins around and looks at the other patrons. He can’t really make anyone out which he hadn’t noticed right when he walked in. They’re almost blurred to the point where everyone is only made up of a few colors. Even the creature at the other end of the bar, only eight stars away looks fuzzy. Predominantly dark purple and wonderblack, matching the outside sign in a way, they sip their drink. Ten wonders if he looks blurred to everyone else. Doesn’t explain why Ten could feel the eyes of everyone before, but he doesn’t need to question that right now. The only question he really cares about, he’s still waiting on an answer to.

“Your drink is ready,” Kun says and there’s a small clink of glass on wood before Ten turns around. His drink is completely clear, looking like water, but Ten can smell that it isn’t just water. 

“Did you remember the answer to my question?” Ten counters, ignoring the glass and looking Kun directly in the eyes. Kun fumbles for a moment, vamps two eyes not able to look at all nine of Ten’s solid white eyes. Vamp takes a breath and sets vamps elbows on the bar, lowering vampself slightly so vam’s at the same level as Ten.

“Maybe you should tell me a little bit more about this Doyoung person.” Ten doesn’t know why Kun is dodging the question now, vam’s already got some of Ten’s money. But it’s been a long long time since anyone has even hinted at knowing Doyoung, not allowing Ten to talk about him. 

“Alright, I will.” Ten adjust himself in his seat without looking away from Kun. “I met Doyoung when we were both in school and we were paired together as rangers for the Noirow government. He and I became inseparable and I would even go so far to say we were exclusive lovers.” Kun raises an eyebrow at that. Monogamy is mostly a thing of the past and even Ten isn’t really fond of it if he’s honest. Only die hard lovers even try with it.

“That’s intense.” Ten rolls his eyes before continuing.

“We weren’t monogamous for that long though. After three trips as rangers, we had seen the other close to death too many times and sometimes needed someone who we didn’t have so much baggage with. But as most creatures know, the Noirow government doesn’t like giving up rangers, especially successful rangers. Not to toot my own horn, but we’re the best pair out there,” Ten explains, watching Kun’s face carefully. None of vamps expressions have been anything more than curious or attentive, giving Ten the confidence to continue.

“So how does that end up with Doyoung coming into my bar?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Doyoung and I were happy somewhere far away from the Noirow government, but one day when he was out of our place, they found us— well, they found me. I got away, but since then I haven’t been able to find him. I returned to our place when it was safe, but nothing. I’ve only gotten here through word of mouth and seven months.” Kun opens vamps mouth a little and Ten catches a glimpse at vamps tongue, dark red but coated in Kun’s own blood.

“I applaud you for getting this far then.” Ten sighs and finally looks away from Kun to his drink. 

“What’s in here anyway?” Ten asks.

“Don’t you want to be surprised?” Kun counters and Ten looks at him with seven of his eyes, his main two still looking at the glass. Ten reaches up and wraps a bony hand around the glass and lifts it to his lips.

“Surprises are only sometimes fun.” Ten swallows down the liquid and for a second he’s convinced he’s only drunk water, but then he feels something in the pit of his stomach. He blinks for a moment, all of his eyes drifting to the counter along with his hands, trying to hold himself stable. That’s not great…  
There’s a familiar hand on his shoulder and then someone is sitting down next to Ten, but he’s still too dizzy to turn his head. The hand doesn’t move away though. It gives Ten a reassuring squeeze before Ten’s vision totally clears. Ten turns his head and feels his heart stop.  
“Doyoung?”

“It’s me, yeah.” Doyoung’s black eye looks slightly sad, but Ten doesn’t get it. He’s looking at Doyoung for the first time seven months and if he weren’t frozen on the spot, he would be throwing himself into Doyoung’s arms.

Kun clears his throat and Ten is about to thank vamp, but Ten’s words are caught in his throat. From vamps mouth, Kun’s skin peels itself backward before falling all the way down Kun’s body, leaving only a vague shape of black blood with small bits of dark red poking out here and there.  
“Sorry to burst your bubble,” Kun says. “But Doyoung is dead… and so are you.”

**Author's Note:**

> random bonus scene idea i had;
> 
> Kun’s hand grips at Ten’s throat and vam holds vampself above Ten, looking down at him. Vam’s mouth opens slowly and Ten sees Kun’s tongue once again, this time intentionally flicking blood out of vamps mouth onto Ten’s cheek.
> 
> “I don’t know why you two make skincare so homoerotic,” Doyoung mutters to their left, rubbing something into his skin and looking on in dismay.
> 
> “Homoerotism is the only point of life,” Ten argues.
> 
> “Ten, we’re both dead.” Kun giggles, accidentally flinging more blood onto Ten.
> 
> “Doie has a point.” 
> 
> “If I’m going to be dead, I’m going to have fun with it or there’s no point.”


End file.
